Claimed by Her Panthers (10 page)

When
Stephan heard the door shut he pulled Angelica to him.

“
Jenika
knows something is different about you two. What you
just told her will only keep her for a while. I wish I could tell her what you
two are.”

He
rested his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry you can’t tell her, cupcake. It’s
just that it’s the rules. You have to have permission or the person has to be
your mate. She could catch us shifting?”

“I
don’t want that because if she caught you shifting she’d see you
naked,
and even though she’s my best friend that sight is
just for me.”

Stephan
loved her possessiveness and captured her mouth to his. She wrapped her arms
around him and pulled him down so she wasn’t on her tiptoes. He smoothed his
hands down her back and cupped her arse.

Angelica
pulled away from him panting for breath. “Any time I’m close to you now I just
want to jump you and make out. What is wrong with me?”

Owen
chuckled behind him. “Nothing, sweetheart, you’re just responding to the mate
bond.”

“I
was never like this with you two before we had sex?”

“Not
this bad no, but if you remember any time we were close, you were always near
us or touching us in some way. When we decided to mate you and act on it, the
bond flared to life. When you turned twenty-one was when we knew for sure you
were our mate. Our panthers finally spoke up. There were signs we should have
seen and figured it out before this, but we remained ignorant.” Stephan thought
it was a good thing because he felt it got them to fall in love with Angelica
without thinking it was the bond.

Angelica
frowned. “But still … things are so different. I’m so different. How could the
bond be different after you accepted who I was to you?”

“It’s
all hormones,” Owen explained. “
Us
accepting you as
our mate meant our body released the chemicals related to the mating bond.
Allowing not just our desire and yours to ignite, but causing the enzyme in our
bite which gives us the ability to claim you as ours. Make sense?”

Angelica
let out a very unladylike snort. “When did any of this really start making
sense?”

Stephan
needed to feel Angelica against him. He loved the feel of her warm body against
his. Putting her down in front of the sofa Stephan yanked the shirt up over her
head and let it fall to the ground. He then hooked his fingers into the waist
of her tights and pushed them down and off.

He
groaned, and Owen moaned beside him. Angelica had a pink lacy bra and undies set
with a black bow in the middle of the bra.
 

“You
like?” Her eyes shone with lust, and she had a wicked grin on her face. “I put
them on earlier thinking you would be home, but the later it got, I changed and
called
Jenika
.” She stretched and yawned. “It’s a
pity you two came home so late. I’m tired now from all the unpacking and moving
of furniture.”

“Oh really.”
Stephan grabbed
her by the waist and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. Angelica’s
giggle turned into a squeal as he whacked her butt.
 
“Come on, Owen. Let’s go wake our girl up.”

“You
don’t have to tell me twice. Lead the way,” Owen purred out.

Angelica
laughed and smacked at his arse.
 

Chapter Five

The
next few days flew by, filled with sex and lounging around talking and more
sex. Angelica thought she should feel more worn out, but she felt fantastic.
Her alarm had gone off ten minutes ago, and Angelica still lay in bed not
wanting to move, not because she was tired, but because she was sandwiched
between two muscular warm bodies.

“Chuck
a sickie,” Owen grumbled against her neck.

“I
can’t. Tomorrow is teddy bear picnic day, and I will have twenty super-excited
kindergarteners. Plus this is my first year teaching. I was lucky to get a job
straight out of university this close to home.”

Angelica
sighed, because thinking of lucky, she hadn’t brought up the protection talk
with them. They’d been having sex with no condoms. She’d mentioned it once
before, but they hadn’t really answered.

Sitting
up, not caring about her nudity, she climbed over Stephan who held her to him
and got off the bed. He walked with her in his arms to the bathroom.

“What
time do you two leave for work tonight? I need to have a talk to you two when I
get home.”

Owen
moaned from the
bed,
and Stephan grumbled, “Fuck, when
a woman says that it usually doesn’t end well for the men.”

She
whacked Stephan’s chest, and he put her down. “I just want to talk about
protection. We haven’t used any, and I’m not on the pill. I have an appointment
for vaccinations next week. I can ask for the pill then, but what if I’m
already pregnant? How does it work? Will one of you know who the father is?
‘Cos I sure as hell won’t.
What will people think? Oh God,
how could I have been so irresponsible? Why didn’t you two have a condom? What
is wrong with me that every time you two touch me I forget to ask about
protection? It doesn’t even cross my mind.”

Angelica
could feel herself starting to get worked up. What was she going to do if she
was pregnant? She didn’t want one of them to get jealous. Angelica didn’t even
know if she was ready for children. Last year she’d finished her university
degree and gotten her dream job. She didn’t want to put that in jeopardy.
 

Stephan’s
arms circled around her.
“Calm down, cupcake.
Any
child you have will be ours, no matter which of us is the father.” His hands
ran soothingly over her body before resting on her stomach. “There is no need
to worry. We will work this out. I for one would love to see you round with
life.”

Owen
came up behind her. “Sweetheart, don’t worry about things that haven’t happened
yet. We would support you and do whatever you wanted.”

“Do
you mean it? You’re not just telling me what I want to hear now so we don’t
have to talk about it later?”

Stephan
let her go, and Owen held her. Stephan turned the shower taps on.

“Even
when we weren’t together like this, when did we ever avoid talking to you about
anything? We sat through way too many girlie movies to keep you company and
happy for you to suggest that we would avoid talking to you.”
 
Owen leaned down and kissed her.

She
reluctantly pulled away and got in the shower, grabbed her sponge and shower
gel, put some on her sponge then put it back. She lathered herself up wishing
she could stay with her two men, but she had to get to work.

Angelica
paused in her lathering as what she said registered. She’d called Stephan and
Owen her men.
Wow.
That had happened
fast. Panic set in, and her mind began to spin. She needed to get away.
Distance.
From them, from the whole mate
thing.
Time to think while she could clear her head.
Going to work would give her that.

Getting
out of the shower she wrapped a towel around herself and went back into the
room surprised to see Stephan and Owen hadn’t gone back to bed.
 
Drying herself she got dressed thinking when
she didn’t see the boys that they must have gone to different beds to sleep.
Dressed in black fitted pants and a plain blue top she went to the kitchen
hoping she could find some coffee. They hadn’t been food shopping, and over the
weekend they’d ordered takeout. Stephan had given her breakfast in bed
yesterday, and Owen had done it the day before.

The
closer she got to the kitchen the more the smell of fresh coffee surrounded
her.
 
In the kitchen Stephan stood with
his back to her, with only grey tracksuit pants on. Over the stove and across
from him Owen stood in black ones watching her enter the room and filling her
coffee cup.

“I
think I just walked into my fantasy. Thanks. You two didn’t have to get up for
me.”

 
Owen came and placed the steaming cup on the
table in front of her. He then pulled her to him and brushed his lips over hers
lingering for a moment or two. “We wanted to. I can only sleep in that bed if
you’re with me.”

Owen
stepped away, and Stephan placed a plate with French toast in front of her.
Angelica was so lucky. French toast was her favorite.

“Eat
up or you’ll be late for work. Owen and I are going to head into work.
Hopefully we can get away early if we go soon.

“Thank
you so much for everything.”
 

“No
problem, cupcake. We want to spend time with you.”

They
both smiled and sat on either side of her. In that moment she wondered what
she’d done to deserve the two of them. If they kept this up she would fall hard
for them if she hadn’t already.
 

****

Owen
and Stephan had come home early this week, but not as early as they liked. The
discussion on Monday had gone well. They were going to hold off on any
contraception until after Angelica went to the doctor.
 
He and Stephan had explained that they were
disease free and couldn’t catch anything thanks to their Shifter genes.

Owen
had told Angelica that he was ready to start a family whenever she was.
 
He was ready now. Stephan had agreed that he
was ready and children would be nice. Angelica told them she loved children. It
was one of the reasons she had chosen to be a teacher, and she couldn’t wait to
start a family of her own. She didn’t want to start a family late in life like
her mother did and be too old to play and do what needed to be done. Angelica
was worried about losing her position though.
 
He and Stephan had reassured her that they would support her in whatever
they wanted to do.

Tuesday
Angelica had come home late and exhausted. It had been her teddy bear picnic.
Parents were invited, and all sorts of food and games were offered. Angelica
got home later than they had after she’d finished talking with parents and helped
cleaned up.

They’d
ordered out again because they hadn’t gone and gotten food. Angelica phoned him
in her lunch break today to say she was coming home to shower and change and
she would go get groceries, and did he or Stephan want anything? Owen had told
her he would join her.

So
Owen picked Angelica up from home, and they were now pulling up into the car
park of the shops.
 

“It’s
good you came because I have a feeling we are going to need two trolleys.”
Angelica smiled at him as he parked, and she got out.

Owen
held her hand as they walked through the entry. He let it go only to get a
trolley. “We can start off with one. Stephan said he’d meet us here in fifteen
or so. He has a thing where he will only use certain brands.” Owen rolled his
eyes. He’d been unfortunate enough to get a wrong item once and had his head
chewed out for it. After that he’d vowed never to go shopping for Stephan
again.
 

“I
understand. There are just some things that taste better from certain brands.”

Owen
shrugged. He really didn’t care as long as the food tasted good.

Angelica
didn’t let them start down the closest aisle. She said she had a routine, that
the cold stuff and fresh fruit and salads were done last. Angelica knew what
she wanted, and by the third aisle the trolley was slowly filling.

“I
don’t shop at this shop. It’s too close to my work. I love my job as a
kindergarten teacher, but I don’t like my work and outside of life to mix. Your
house is a lot closer to my work. I have a feeling I won’t be able to avoid it.”

“Our house.”
He corrected
her. Owen wanted her know it was her house now, too.

Angelica
rolled her eyes.
“Our house.”
She turned from him and
looked at the shelves. Angelica got vegemite, honey, strawberry jam, and cheese
spread. “I can’t believe you didn’t have any vegemite. You know how much I love
the stuff.”

Owen
gagged. He hated vegemite, and so did Stephan. “Yuck. I had hoped you’d grown
out of the horrid stuff.”

“Hey,
the stuff is my favorite spread.” Her hip bumped his, and she waggled her eyebrows.
A wicked grin spread over her face. “You know I could eat the stuff off
anything. Maybe if you’d had it I could have shown you how much I liked it by
licking it off…” Angelica trailed off, but her eyes focused on his the crotch of
his jeans.
 

The
little witch, she knew what she did to him because her grin got bigger, and she
winked at him turned and went to walk farther down the aisle. Owen stalked
towards her as she walked away, pulled her to him, and kissed her. Angelica
gasped, and he took the opportunity to slip in his tongue in. She wrapped her
arms around his neck for a moment before moving her lips from his. He could
feel eyes on them but ignored them.

“Come
on, we haven’t even gotten down two aisles yet, Owen. I can’t believe you
kissed me like that at the supermarket. I can’t believe I let you. Come on,
let’s get what we have to and go before we get kicked out for inappropriate
behavior.”